The Professionals Cars Explored!
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- čas přidán 26. 11. 2021
- This video looks at the main cars used by the lead characters of the tv show 'The Professionals' (1977-1983) starting with the ever changing fleet of British Leyland cars in the first series and then onto the more familiar Ford cars which were part of the press fleet loaned to ITV in the late 1970's. (also known as the 'VHK Press fleet')
The information has been obtained from the DVLA database, but may not be completely accurate.
Great video. Well done finding out all of that out. I didn't realise that bodie had so many different silver capris!!! Fussy bugger!!! Without doubt the silver mk2 X pack is my stand out dream capri, in fact it's in my top 5 favourite classic fords in my dream garage. I'd heard a myth years ago, that doyles RS2000 was stolen from the studio car park just after the last ever episode, then it fortunately it suddenly reappears like puff the magic dragon. Great cars from a great show.
Fantastic Video.
May I explain that I am a big car nut as well as since childhood a big fan of The Professionals and Famous Five. Both is the same production team and I am friends with one of the actors of F5, plus most observations with reg plates are my own research. (Usually my research goes into rally cars, but here the film cars are extremely interesting.)
Let's start with Cowley's Rover SD1, real plate MOC 229P, false plate MOO 229R. In most cases I don't understand why Mark1 Production changed reg plates, but here it does make sense. This car is maybe connected to BL/Rover missing out on one of the many marketing tricks, digging their own grave throughout existence. Apparently the producers had to pay for the cars including repairs that were not their fault, down to BLs incapability to build reliable cars. Understandably Mark1 Productions was not happy. Ford made an offer at some point and Ford today claims CI5 raised sales of the Capri by 40%!
Anyway, the SD1 was already used for filming "The New Avenger" and "Return of the Saint". On both occasions the Rover used its original MOC 229P plate. So I guess the producers didn't want the car look the same for a 3rd TV series and adding just 2 lines to make it MOO 229R was an easy thing to do!
Doyle's TR7 has a reg plate very similar to a whole line of BL rally team cars. I am not going into this unless someone wants this info. But here are 3 video links (if I am allowed):
Famous Five: 7:07 & 14:20 czcams.com/video/NThSgqZuSm0/video.html & 16:05 czcams.com/video/jBigp951c64/video.html
And a car test: czcams.com/video/nxncVHOZOrw/video.html
The blue Granada VHK 464S of Famous Five is obviously a Ford press car! Interesting in the last link we see that red Granada Ghia VHK 511S, compare to Cowley's VHK 518S!
Bodie's Capri PNO 580R and Cowley's Granada YHT 766T. Note that the main car in Famous Five, dad's silver Cortina Estate was PNO 565R. In Series2 they seemed to have a new car. In one episode they forgot to change the reg plate and YHJ 750S was shown. It was meant to be the old R-reg car. YHT 766T indeed seems a false plate, but was it inspired by YHJ ***S?
Cowley's red Granada: I have been told that were 2 cars used alongside each other. But DVLA data shows FEV 24T as first registered 9th May 1979. That would be after S3E2 was filmed. And it is S3E3 where we actually see the FEV 24T plate on film! That should mean Cowley's red Granada for Series 2 was always VHK 518S and from S3E3 it was a swap between VHK 518S and FEV 24T both using the fake YHJ 766T plate. Apparently (but you must be a massive train spotter nerd) you can identify the cars on the boot lid. They were absolutely identical, only VHK 518S was a 2.8 Ghia and FEV 24T was a 2.8i Ghia! When which car was used is hard to tell, but at least for the first 2 episodes of S3 FEV 24T did not exist yet!
A bit cleverer may have been Bodie's silber Capri Mk3 in Series2/3. The UOO 303T plate may (my personal guess) come from UOO 304R. In S2 we had a CI5 back up car in form of a blue Cortina with the original plate UOO 304R. You see in Series4 that reg plates ending V have been updated to W (OWC 822V original, OWC 822W fake for example) simply to pass them off as new cars when aired. Maybe this is the story, they had that UOO 304R Cortina and 303 is a nicer number and T a more up to date plate?
Anyway, I have a very good source telling me in filming of S2 Bodie wrecked his Capri VHK 495S. Not sure which episode, but in later S2 Bodie used Cortinas and from S2E12 he was back in his silver Capri. From S2E12 and throughout S3 this silver Capri was always COO 251T as VHK 495S was no more. But the TV viewer never spotted it since the Capri was always on the same fake plates since the start of S2.
Yes, you say VHK 495S was last sold 2016. But you say also that for some time DVLA allowed re-issuing plates. I guess that happened here. Red Granada YHJ 766T is fake, everyone agrees on that, yet today DVLA has a red Granada with that plate on record!
Sticking to the Granadas for now: I personally rate the Granada Mk2 alongside the Rover SD1 and Citroen XM as my all time favourite cars. And that Midnight Blue suited the Granada Mk2 especially well. Interesting then that Cowley had a Midnight Blue Granada Mk2 in S4 = OWC 822V turn OWC 822W and in S5 = UJN 696W original plate.
I do hope you are right with your info on UJN 696W as last sold 1991, no info since. I am old now, so I prefer a dark Granada to a white RS2000. Sadly I heard of a story that a CI5 fan spotted UJN 696W on a scrap yard and returned the next Monday to save the car, he arrived 5mins after it went through the crusher :-( So in all likelyhood UJN 696W is no more :-( Would be especially interesting since these are the very last CI5 cars and VHK 11W and VHK 12W still are often seen today, but UJN 696W was not seen since decades 😞
Curiousities:
Sorry, more train spotter nerdy stuff, but may be interesting:
PNO 542R seems such a typical 1977 Ford press car plate. It was a blue Cortina Mk4 that showed up in S1E5 as one of the CI5 team cars. This was even before Doyle had his TR7! I can only guess, but was this an early hint (that BL didn't spot) and test for Ford and the producers when BL showed so little interest, never spotted the potential? PNO 542R is a typical Ford press car rego, but interesting is that CI5 used this very car as a back up car in S1E5, S1E8, S1E12 and then in S1E13 it was suddenly the car of the villains? I never knew CI5 got a car stolen from their car pool?
Sorry, OK maybe I am a nerd. But CI5 was BL cars (what a missed opportunity for BL, how clever of Ford to offer!), Bodie and Doyle swapped to Ford in S1E8 when PNO 542R appeared for the 2nd time. Cowley swapped his Rover/Princess for the Granada VHK 456S in Ep9, But still testing exercise? Strange that PNO 542R was a CI5 car in Ep12 and a villains car in Ep13.
Funnier even between S2E9 and S3E3 3 new Cortinas: VHK 534S Blue, VHK 536S Beige & VHK 537S red. At first they were all CI5 back up cars, but isn't it exactly in this range strange that the middle one, VHK 536S, turned a villains car? Why make all this fuss about fake plates, when then you go VHK 534S = good guys, VHK 536S = bad guys, VHK 537S = good guys? I don't even need to be a nerd to realise secret service and villains met at the reg office!
OK, that may not seem that obvious for bloopers. But in later years I found this:
Again, watch the Cortinas, by now Mk4 Facelifts (some like to call them Mk5, which to my mind is not correct):
In CI5 S4E3 "Blackout" Bodie chases the Villians. The Villains drive a red Cortina "MHK 545V and Bodie chases them in a green Cortina MHK 547V. Makes you wonder why Bodie didn't knick them at the reg office?
Well, I leave it at that for now. But makes you wonder in many occasions, and makes you confirm real classic cars in others?
Sorry, may I as last comment say I would like more of these videos. The Sweeney was never in Germany, so I don't know their Ford connection, even obviously there is one. The new Avengers I never liked and therefore never followed. The Return of the Saint I never herd off. But could be good ideas to carry on this series? F5 also?
According to some sources, Cowley's Rover 3500 was given the MOO plate change as an in joke to his men's nickname for being "The Cow"
"for him"
Sorry... 🤪
Great video. I often wonder where the location was for series 1 titles with the Rolls Royce. I've never been able to find this out as I think I read that these were alternative titles and were not used and the other titles were used instead.
The series 1 title sequence was filmed at the old Rockware Glassworks in Middlesex. For later repeats of this series and oversees versions, the 2nd series title sequence was used instead.
@@andrewyork5620 Thanks so much for the help, appreciate it. Just tried to have look on Google Street View at the location. It's a shame there's a lot of business units there now which aren't covered by Street View. The location seems to be a Royal Mail office now, and you can't get access to Street View. Thanks again.
This link on The Professionals website explains in more detail.
www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/org_seq.htm
Very interesting 👍
👍 great video.
Wow...they changed Bodie's Capri 3 times...I wondered where the headrests went in season 4 lol....
Superb! That you, who's is the music mix?
Thank you. Both pieces of music are Laurie Johnson scores from the show.
Track 1 is from season 4 episode 'It's Only A Beautiful Picture'
Track 2 is from season 2 episode 'Hunter Hunted'.
Great video with great information. I own a capri 3.0s and want to make a short video for it and would like to use the same music from Hurter/Hunted. Where do I find the music that I can edit on to my video
Thanks in advance
Wayne
The music was from the CD soundtrack which was released by Laurie Johnson around 2008.
Thank you for your reply. I’ve tried to find the track but no luck. Do you know the name of the track
Thanks again
Wayne
What's your email address? - I'll try and send you the audio file.
Nobody has seen doyles RS2000 at shows or ford magazines ...
Its under major refurbishment , to bring it back to its former glory .
@@ap5824 If its done properly it will be worth an outer London mortgage!